Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ( 2011 ) R | From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6. Director: "No Small Parts" IMDb Exclusive: 'Edge of Seventeen' Star Hailee Steinfeld Hailee Steinfeld has received critical acclaim for her role in the coming-of-age comedy The Edge of Seventeen . What other roles has she played over the years? Don't miss our live coverage of the Golden Globes beginning at 4 p.m. PST on Jan. 8 in our Golden Globes section.

BFI boards Saul Dibb-Sam Claflin war-drama 'Journey End' 28 November 2016 3:25 AM, -08:00 | ScreenDaily a list of 27 titles created 08 Aug 2011 a list of 42 titles created 03 Feb 2012 a list of 34 titles created 01 Jan 2013 a list of 34 titles created 16 Feb 2013 a list of 41 titles created 03 Mar 2013 Title: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) 7.1/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 34 wins & 88 nominations. See more awards » Videos In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced out of semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6's echelons.

Stars: Alec Guinness, Michael Jayston, Anthony Bate Set in Depression-era Franklin County, Virginia, a trio of bootlegging brothers are threatened by a new special deputy and other authorities angling for a cut of their profits. Director: John Hillcoat Based on the true story of the Black September aftermath, about the five men chosen to eliminate the ones responsible for that fateful day. Director: Steven Spielberg 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X In London, a real-estate scam puts millions of pounds up for grabs, attracting some of the city's scrappiest tough guys and its more established underworld types, all of whom are looking to get rich quick. While the city's seasoned criminals vie for the cash, an unexpected player -- a drugged-out rock 'n' roller presumed to be dead but very much alive -- has a multi-million-dollar prize fall into... See full summary » Director: Guy Ritchie Ivan Locke, a dedicated family man and successful construction manager, receives a phone call on the eve of the biggest challenge of his career that sets in motion a series of events that threaten his carefully cultivated existence.

Director: Steven Knight British agent Alec Leamas refuses to come in from the Cold War during the 1960s, choosing to face another mission, which may prove to be his final one. Director: Martin Ritt A land baron tries to reconnect with his two daughters after his wife is seriously injured in a boating accident. Director: Alexander Payne A successful cocaine dealer gets two tough assignments from his boss on the eve of his planned early retirement. Director: Matthew Vaughn Bob Saginowski finds himself at the center of a robbery gone awry and entwined in an investigation that digs deep into the neighborhood's past where friends, families, and foes all work together to make a living - no matter the cost. Director: Michaël R. Roskam Edit Storyline In the early 1970s during the Cold War, the head of British Intelligence, Control, resigns after an operation in Budapest, Hungary goes badly wrong. It transpires that Control believed one of four senior figures in the service was in fact a Russian agent - a mole - and the Hungary operation was an attempt to identify which of them it was.

Smiley had been forced into retirement by the departure of Control, but is asked by a senior government figure to investigate a story told to him by a rogue agent, Ricky Tarr, that there was a mole. Smiley considers that the failure of the Hungary operation and the continuing success of Operation Witchcraft (an apparent source of significant Soviet intelligence) confirms this, and takes up the task of finding him. Written by David Brain How do you find an enemy who is hidden right before your eyes? See more » Genres: Rated R for violence, some sexuality/nudity and language | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 6 January 2012 (USA) See more » Also Known As: $310,562 (USA) (9 December 2011) Gross: Did You Know? Trivia Connie Sachs' line about feeling "under-fucked" was allegedly originally spoken to John le Carré by W.H. Auden . See more » Goofs A speed hump can be seen on the road. These certainly did not exist in 1973. See more » Quotes See more » Crazy Credits At the end of the closing credits, there is a mention of Karla Films.

This is a homage to George Smiley's nemesis. See more » Connections (United Kingdom) – See all my reviews It really is interesting to read the above reviews. I've just come back from seeing it and thoroughly enjoyed it, but I wondered if for people who hadn't read the book or seen the TV series it would make sense, and obviously it doesn't. It also doesn't fit the change in perception that the current generation have needing an edit at least every 5 seconds and a linear storyline, that's not ageist, just what we in a much older generation have left as our inheritance, sadly. I really enjoyed the film references whether they are intentional or not, they range from Rear Window to La Nuit Americaine to Mr Bean's Holiday to Godard. Gary Oldman as Smiley is very good, much colder that AG and as in the book a bit younger. It is also less of the feel of a group of Oxbridge Dons in charge rather ex servicemen as MI5 was in those days. I was in my 20's in the early 1970's and the general dullness of everything during that time comes through very well.

I would think that after they edited it they wished they hadn't had some rather crass graffiti so prominent, but I remember it was all over London at that time. Good film with a plot that makes you concentrate and you have to use your brain, well worth seeing, but don't go if you want thrills and spills. 149 of 211 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Review: 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' - tribunedigital-chicagotribune 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' plays close to the vest – 4 stars Oldman's Smiley waits, watches in Alfredson's shrewd adaptation December 15, 2011|Michael Phillips | Movie critic Actors so rarely get paid to sit still. This week at the movies, as Tom Cruise is on Imax screens playing a frantic, hamsterlike intelligence gatherer in the new "Mission: Impossible" movie, we have also a superb adaptation of the John le Carre spy novel "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy." Its central character, George Smiley of the British Secret Intelligence Service, does not smile much, or give anything away. He sits. And watches.

And waits for his adversaries, one of whom is a double agent working for the Soviets as well as the British, to make a fatal mistake. Smiley is played by Gary Oldman in director Tomas Alfredson's adaptation, and he's on screen for nearly 20 minutes before uttering two words. "I'm retired," he says to an old colleague at "the Circus," also known as MI6. He is about to be un-retired by the man (played with marvelous melancholy by John Hurt) called Control, who is aware of the presence of a mole among his ranks. The year is 1973.

(Le Carre's novel was published in 1974; the justly revered British TV miniseries version, starring Alec Guinness as Smiley, was first aired in 1979.) This is a time when news of a Hungarian general deciding to "come over" is able to create a rippling pond of betrayal, deceit, the revelation of what's behind the erosion of Smiley's marriage — everything that Shakespeare wrote about when, in "Hamlet," he noted: "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions." Reading le Carre's novel in high school, I'd never before encountered such a murky universe in the guise of popular entertainment. Smiley is not for everyone; he is a diffident smudge of a man who happens to have superior analytical and espionage skills. Yet the coarser and more sadistic our pop diversions become, the more crucial le Carre seems to me today. He does not bother with turning spy games into delightful, larky escapism. Nor is he especially sanctimonious about a man such as Smiley, or his dodgy co-workers, all of whom have agendas.

The supporting spies include Colin Firth, Ciaran Hinds, Toby Jones (the greatest sniveler in contemporary movies), Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Simon McBurney — remarkable character actors all, and together a formidable ensemble of muttering, furtive underplayers. While it was a pleasure to luxuriate in the many hours of the '79 miniseries, director Alfredson's handling of the two-hour edition of the story, shrewdly compressed by screenwriters Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan, honors the source material in its focus on the little things, the storm clouds gathering above the heads of its spies, and the light of truth dawning, slowly, over Smiley. Alfredson made the excellent vampire thriller "Let the Right One In," and his knack for brackish, enveloping atmosphere is rare indeed. Oldman does so little to snare our attention in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" that he risks sliding sideways out of the frame in every scene. Yet he's so astute with the tools he deploys, namely his voice and his eyes, that Smiley becomes a low hum of an energy source, informing every new development.

Alfredson and his crew shot the film in Budapest and Istanbul as well as in England, but we are a long way from the panoramic vistas of the average Bond or even Bourne film. Instead, le Carre's characters come alive in tight, dark, enclosed spaces. This is one of the finest achievements of the year, and while it's easy to lose your way in the labyrinth, I don't think "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" is most interesting for its narrative pretzels. Rather, it's about what this sort of life does to the average human soul. 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' -- 4 stars MPAA rating: R (for violence, some sexuality/nudity and language) Running time: 2:08 Video: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - trailer - Telegraph Cinema Trailers Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - trailer John le Carré's Cold War novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is made into a film with an all star cast including Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.

1:43PM BST 01 Jul 2011 Written in 1974, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a spy movie featuring intelligence expert George Smiley. Having been forced into retirement he is brought back into MI6 to hunt down a soviet mole who is working at the top of the Secret Intelligence Service. Gary Oldman plays George Smiley in this new adaptation, directed by Thomas Alfredson who also directed Swedish vampire thriller Let the Right One In. From the look of the trailer, Alfredson brings a similar cold darkness to Tinker, Tailer as he did with Let the Right One In. There is a very strong British cast behind Oldman, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy and Simon McBurney. The novelist le Carré revealed in 1995 that Smiley was based on a Reverend Vivian Green whom he met in the Fifties. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is arguably le Carre's most famous work and was adapted into a TV series starring Alec Guinness in 1979. Earlier this year le Carré donated the original manuscript of the novel to Oxford's Bodleian Library.

Related Content Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) - Bristol Festival of Ideas Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) Film screening with introduction Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) Film screening with introduction Description Biography In this feature film adaptation of John le Carré’s novel, Gary Oldman plays George Smiley, the recently retired MI6 agent, doing his best to adjust to a life outside the secret service. However, when a disgraced agent reappears with information concerning a mole at the heart of the service, Smiley is drawn back into the murky field of espionage. Tasked with investigating which of his trusted former colleagues has chosen to betray him and their country, Smiley narrows his search to four suspects – all experienced, skilled and successful agents – but past histories, rivalries and friendships make it far from easy to pinpoint the man who is eating away at the heart of the British establishment. Like its predecessor (screening on 17 October), this film has a great cast including Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch and inspired direction from Let the Right One In’s Tomas Alfredson. Introduced by author Adam Sisman (John le Carré: The Biography).

Part of I Spy…John le Carré , a weekender celebrating the launch of Bristol-based Adam Sisman’s biography on celebrated author John le Carré – including the full 1979 seven-part BBC mini-series of Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, a screening of the recent film version, and Sisman himself in conversation with Robert McCrum, associate editor of the Observer. I Spy…John le Carré This screening is part of I Spy…John le Carré , a weekender celebrating the launch of Bristol-based Adam Sisman’s biography on celebrated author John le Carré – including the full 1979 seven-part BBC mini-series of Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, a screening of the recent film version, and Sisman himself in conversation with Robert McCrum, associate editor of the Observer.

In association with/ John le Carré: The author's official website: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy to Premiere at Venice Film Festival Watch John le Carré reading an excerpt from The Pigeon Tunnel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy to Premiere at Venice Film Festival ‘Written in 1974, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is le Carré’s most famous espionage novel featuring intelligence expert George Smiley’. Tweet this The Telegraph reports that: ‘The new, big-screen adaptation of John le Carré’s Cold War thriller ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ will compete for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival this September. Written in 1974, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is le Carré’s most famous espionage novel featuring intelligence expert George Smiley. Having been forced into retirement he is brought back into MI6 to hunt down a soviet mole who is working at the top of the Secret Intelligence Service. Gary Oldman plays George Smiley in this new adaptation, directed by Thomas Alfredson who also directed Swedish vampire thriller Let the Right One In.

Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Tom Hardy and Kathy Burke will also star. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was adapted into a TV series starring Alec Guinness in 1979. Last year it was reported that filmmakers wanted to update the big-screen version, but le Carré was adamant that it should be set in the Cold War era. According to early reports the film it recalls other politically charged films from that era such as The Conversation, or the more recent Oscar-winner The Lives of Others. Tinker, Tailor will compete against films by Roman Polanski, David Cronenberg and George Clooney for the Golden Lion […] Tinker, Tailor, produced by Working Title, is set for release on 16 September in the UK, and in the US on November 18. Telegraph film critic David Gritten has predicted that it will be a British contender for Oscars and Baftas next year.

The Venice Film Festival runs from 31 August – 10 September.’ Read the full article on the Telegraph website here For more information from the Venice Film Festival website follow this link John Le Carré: Gary Oldman's Smiley 'pays full honour to the genius of Alec Guinness' - Telegraph Venice Film Festival John Le Carré: Gary Oldman's Smiley 'pays full honour to the genius of Alec Guinness' Gary Oldman's portrayal of the spy is every bit as good as his lauded predecessor, the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy writer has said at the Venice Film Festival. Alex Guinness in the 1979 BBC TV series and Gary Oldman in Tomas Alfredson's new big screen adaptation of Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor in Venice 3:43PM BST 05 Sep 2011 For television viewers of a certain age, there is only one George Smiley. Sir Alec Guinness gave one of his most memorable performances as the world-weary MI6 man in the 1979 BBC adaptation of John Le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Three decades on, Smiley is back, played in a new film by Gary Oldman. And Le Carré has urged fans to give him a chance, suggesting that Oldman’s performance surpasses that of Sir Alec. “I approached the prospect of a feature film of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with the same misgivings that would have afflicted anyone else who had loved the television series of 32 years ago,” the author said. “George Smiley was Alec Guinness, Alec was George, period. How could another actor equal let alone surpass him? Related Articles On the set of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy 03 Sep 2011 “My anxieties were misplaced. And if people write to me and say, ‘How could you let this happen to poor old Alec Guinness?’, I shall reply that, if ‘poor Alec’ had witnessed Oldman’s performance, he would have been the first to give it a standing ovation.” Le Carré said that Oldman “pays full honour to the genius of Guinness”. He added: “He evokes the same solitude, inwardness, pain and intelligence that his predecessor brought to the part - even the same elegance.

“But Oldman’s Smiley, from the moment he appears, is a man waiting patiently to explode. “If I were to meet the Smiley of Alec Guinness on a dark night, my instinct would be to go to his protection. If I met Oldman’s I think I just might make a run for it. “The television version was made, in a curious way, as a love story to a fading British Establishment. It was done with great nostalgia; even the smallest, nastiest characters were in some way huggable. “The Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy that has now been made is without sentiment, sexier, grittier and crueller. It had to be.” The Cold War thriller, from Swedish director Tomas Alfredson, was well-received on its first showing at the Venice Film Festival . Smiley is brought out of retirement to identify a mole at the heart of the Secret Intelligence Service. The film co-stars Toby Jones, Colin Firth, Ciaran Hinds and David Dencik as the suspects of the title. In the 1974 novel, Le Carré introduced Smiley as “small, podgy and at best middle aged”.

Oldman fattened up on treacle sponge and custard for the role, and personally sourced a pair of spectacles. Le Carré did not attend the Venice press conference, choosing instead to send written notes, But the cast were there and Oldman said he was “in awe” of his fellow actors, who include John Hurt as Control, with Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy as spies. “I was very flattered to be asked to play George,” said Oldman. “Britain has a long espionage tradition and I’d say we’ve spied quite well. But we have also held a rather romantic view of it, and le Carré showed the reality. “I hope this movie will encourage people to discover his books.” The film looks destined to do well in awards season but the complexities of the plot led some to question how far it will go at the box office. Firth said he was confident that the film will be a hit. “There has been a tendency to under-estimate audiences and I do think there is an appetite to be stretched, to hear language at its best on screen. I don’t think people just want ‘slash and burn’.

“I’m optimistic about the fact it will have an enormous audience.” The film is released in the UK on September 16. Start your free 30 day Amazon Prime trial» John le Carré: The author's official website: 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy': What John Le Carre Really Thought Of The Movie Adaptation Tweet this Peter Straughn, one half of the writing team that adapted ‘Tinker, Tailor’ for the big screen, writes here about his apprehension before taking on the job, living up to the expectations of John le Carré, and becoming a foster father to ‘George Smiley’: ‘The process of adapting Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy began in a state of fear, which is perhaps appropriate for entering a world characterised by paranoia and dread. John le Carré is something of a revered author, a writer who had taken the spy genre – formerly dominated by Ian Fleming’s escapist James Bond books – and elevated it into literature. […] And then there was the book. Le Carré’s characters are unheroic (his most famous character, George Smiley, is described as “small, podgy and at best middle-aged”), and their battles are psychological rather than physical.

[…] The book’s plot is labyrinthine, layered, shifting; its tone is shot through with melancholy rather than triumphalism. All of this made it a fantastically rich reading experience, and a horrendously difficult prospect for film adaptation. So when my wife Bridget O’Connor and myself got the call to ask if we’d be interested in trying an adaptation, our reaction was one of extreme nervousness. However, we found out that le Carré was involved in the project himself, and that a director was already attached; the Swede Tomas Alfredson had made the international hit “Let the Right One In,” which we had seen and loved. […] Tomas turned out to be as different from the cliché of the “movie director” as it is possible to imagine. He coupled the impenetrable calm of Smiley himself with flashes of wicked humour. We liked him immediately. […] Working with Tomas was a little like working on a project with a mad professor.

Instead of the usual studio notes on “characters arcs,” “three-act structure,” and “dramatic stakes,” Tomas would begin a script meeting by wondering what kind of fairy story “Tinker Tailor” would be; the good Prince who is thrown out of the castle and must defeat the usurper King, we decided. […] Other notes included his telling the cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema that the film should look like the smell of wet tweed. (He told me that world should have the color of an old man’s foreskin. I haven’t actually seen an old man’s foreskin, but I took the point.) We met with David Cornwell, a.k.a. John le Carré himself, who turned out to be everything an adaptor could hope for from an author – generous, supportive and brilliantly inventive. […] Far less precious about the novel than Bridget and myself, he encouraged us to move away from the text – and to play with new ideas and structures. The initial drafts came fairly quickly and within something like six months we were green-lit. The process of refining, restructuring and polishing continued up to the beginning of the shoot – around about a year’s writing in all.

The adaptation process differs from book to book, but in the case of “Tinker Tailor,” it involved a kind of mosaic work. The structure of the novel was broken into pieces. Some long sequences would remain intact – Peter Guillam stealing the files from the Circus, for example – but in other cases we would take a line or event from one place in the narrative and move it elsewhere, shifting the fragments around endlessly until it felt right. […] The really difficult part was not fitting the plot into two hours but doing it without losing the tone; to give the film the same autumnal, melancholy pace, and to give the script air and silence. […] Adaptation is a kind of foster parenting, and as the filmmaking process continues you find yourself handing over the baby and watching it being taken away by new parents. Throughout the shoot, the edit, and the early screenings – and up to the final release – a vague sense of nervousness continued. Unusually for me (because the job is not, in the end, to please the author), I found myself worrying about le Carré and whether or not he would approve of the film. At the U.K.

premiere, Gary Oldman (who portrays Smiley) asked him if he liked what he’d seen. “I’m chuffed to fuck,” came the reply. I finally stopped worrying’. Read the full article in The Huffington Post here ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,’ With Gary Oldman - Review - The New York Times The New York Times Movies |The Spy Who Emerged From the Fog Search Movies | Movie Review | 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' The Spy Who Emerged From the Fog Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Continue reading the main story Photo From left, David Dencik, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, John Hurt (as Control), Gary Oldman (as George Smiley) and Ciaran Hinds in “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” Credit Jack English/Focus Features Dread throbs like a heartbeat in “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” a superb new adaptation of the 1974 spy novel by John le Carré . It’s a deep pulse that maintains its insistent rhythm throughout the film’s murmured conversations, life-and-death office intrigues, violence and yearning loves.

The throbbing does a number on your nervous system — this is a movie you watch on high alert — and brings you into the state of mind that can feel like a state of siege and goes by the name of British secret service, or just the Circus. For those inside the intelligence service, like George Smiley, played with delicacy and understated power by Gary Oldman , knowledge is power, but so too is fear. The story, skillfully mined from Mr. le Carré’s labyrinthine book and set in 1973, is a pleasurably sly and involving puzzler — a mystery about mysteries within mysteries. The head of the service, known as Control (John Hurt), believes that there’s a Soviet agent, a mole, among the agency’s elite. His main suspects include his closest aide, Smiley, along with Percy Alleline ( Toby Jones ), Toby Esterhase (David Dencik), Roy Bland (Ciaran Hinds) and Bill Haydon ( Colin Firth ). To find the mole, Control secretly sends Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong), who runs the agency’s scalp hunters (field agents with dirty, sometimes bloodied hands), to Hungary to retrieve information.

But Prideaux, in an agonizing botch-up, is shot, and Control, already politically weak, is fired along with Smiley. Mr. le Carré’s seventh novel and the first in his Karla trilogy, “Tinker, Tailor” is set against a geopolitical (and movie) moment that is almost quaintly, reassuringly old-fashioned, a time when enemy agents had names like Boris, and a red flag with a hammer and sickle made the ideological and political stakes clear. It’s a world of secrets and lies, shadows and light, illusions and sordid truths, loyalties and perverse betrayals (it could be called “Enemies, a Love Story”) that the director Tomas Alfredson conjures up in the film’s uneasy opening in Control’s apartment, a cluttered warren fogged over by cigarette smoke. “There’s a rotten apple,” Control says to Prideaux, drawing on a cigarette as he explains his theory about the mole, the folds in Mr. Hurt’s magnificent face sagging a bit lower.

Photo Gary Oldman plays George Smiley in the new adaptation of John le Carré's 1974 spy novel "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy." Credit Jack English/Focus Features That face, a crevassed landscape that suggests sorrow and history, has the granitic grandeur of W. H. Auden in his later life. In tandem with Mr. Hurt’s sonorously melancholic voice (and its useful undertones of hysteria), it is a face that, when used by a filmmaker like Mr. Alfredson, speaks volumes about a character who would otherwise take reams of written dialogue to discover. But unlike the 1979 British television version with Alec Guinness that ran a dutiful 350 minutes, Mr. Alfredson doesn’t enjoy the luxury of literalness. Instead, working from Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan’s intelligent script, this terrifically talented director (“ Let the Right One In ”) distills the novel’s essence, finding images, as with the Circus’s chessboardlike walls, that express what the film’s words and characters don’t.

Continue reading the main story Smiley, who doesn’t say a word until 18 minutes in (“I’m retired”), re-enters the spy game at the behest of a government minister, Oliver Lacon (Simon McBurney). Lacon has received alarming information from Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy), another scalp hunter, who has met a Soviet woman, Irina (Svetlana Khodchenkova), with apparent knowledge of the mole. Using Tarr’s lead and with the help of a trusted Circus agent, Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), Smiley begins ferreting out the mole, spying on the spies. He also uncovers an operation called Witchcraft and runs up against an arch-villain, Karla, a Soviet intelligence officer, in an almost ruthlessly unromantic vision of empire dreams that unfolds in sad, grubby rooms where the flowered wallpaper is sometimes splashed with blood.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story Despite that brutality, “Tinker, Tailor” is suffused with longing and love — for a country, a cause, a lover, a father — a theme that poignantly surfaces at a boys’ school where Prideaux re-emerges and which, in its cloistered quality, mirrors both the big boys’ club that is the Circus and recalls another school that haunts the narrative. “Tinker, Tailor” is partly based on the case of Kim Philby, one of a handful of British spies and Cambridge University alumni who were recruited by the Soviets in the 1930s. (Mr. le Carré, born David John Moore Cornwell, was a British spy whose cover was blown by Philby.) At the school Prideaux meets a lonely student, Bill Roach (William Haddock), a moon-faced outsider whom Prideaux calls “a good watcher,” a description that, given the sadness that cloaks the story’s many watchers, feels chilling. First among the watchers, of course, is Smiley, the anti-Bond described by Mr.

le Carré in “Tinker, Tailor” as looking like “one of London’s meek who do not inherit the earth.” Since the 1979 mini-series, the character has been synonymous with Guinness’s performance, as Mr. le Carré has acknowledged. (Guinness resumed the role in the 1982 mini-series “Smiley’s People.” ) Mr. Oldman, now mostly known for his small, sharp turns in big movies, playing Harry Potter ’s godfather, Sirius Black, and James Gordon in the Batman movies, wisely doesn’t reinvent Smiley. Rather — as hinted in an early scene of Smiley buying the kind of oversize eyeglasses that Guinness wore — he and Mr. Alfredson have opted to build on the original interpretation, using it as a foundational text. (Guinness’s turn is the Torah; Mr. Oldman’s the Talmud.) Video Inside ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ In Anatomy of a Scene, the director Tomas Alfredson narrates a look at his film "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy." By Mekado Murphy on Publish Date December 8, 2011. .

Watch in Times Video » embed It’s a fascinatingly gripping performance that doesn’t so much command the screen, dominating it with shouts and displays of obvious technique, as take it over incrementally, an occupation that echoes Smiley’s steady incursion into the mole’s lair. Again and again, as he does with the other watchers, Mr. Alfredson places Smiley on one side of a window, looking out at a world that he both belongs to and remains very much outside of. There’s a sense throughout that Smiley, preoccupied with thoughts of his errant, faithless wife, Ann (Katrina Vasilieva, never viewed in full), doesn’t just live in a place apart but also in a kind of dream. Yet like the old Circus — a lost world seen in the intermittent flashbacks to a holiday party that, when pieced together, reveal so much, including who loved whom and who was betrayed — Ann is an illusion that Smiley fights for. “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Some gun violence and images of (off-screen) murder, including a cut throat and a disembowelment.

TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY Opens on Friday in New York and Los Angeles. Directed by Tomas Alfredson; written by Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan, based on the novel by John le Carré; director of photography, Hoyte van Hoytema; edited by Dino Jonsater; music by Alberto Iglesias; production design by Maria Djurkovic; costumes by Jacqueline Durran; produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Robyn Slovo; released by Focus Features. Running time: 2 hours 8 minutes.

WITH: Gary Oldman (George Smiley), Kathy Burke (Connie Sachs), Benedict Cumberbatch (Peter Guillam), David Dencik (Toby Esterhase), Colin Firth (Bill Haydon), Stephen Graham (Jerry Westerby), Tom Hardy (Ricki Tarr), Ciaran Hinds (Roy Bland), John Hurt (Control), Toby Jones (Percy Alleline), Svetlana Khodchenkova (Irina), Simon McBurney (Oliver Lacon), Katrina Vasilieva (Ann Smiley), William Haddock (Bill Roach), Mark Strong (Jim Prideaux) and John le Carré (Christmas party guest).

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Stars Alec Guinness, Michael Jayston, Anthony Bate, George Sewell, Bernard Hepton Running Time 4h 50m Gary Oldman: 'The secret of playing George Smiley was in finding the silhouette of a spy' | Film | The Guardian Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Supplement Gary Oldman: 'The secret of playing George Smiley was in finding the silhouette of a spy' A compelling performance by Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy sees a return to form by an actor best known recently for franchise blockbusters Gary Oldman: 'Sometimes in a film, it's like rock'n'roll – you've got to burn from the first bar. Smiley is more like jazz: I can just build to that solo.' Photograph: Matt Sayles/AP Saturday 10 September 2011 19.08 EDT First published on Saturday 10 September 2011 19.08 EDT Share on Messenger Close You couldn't exactly say that Gary Oldman has been away.

He has, after all, had recurring roles in the two great film franchises of the past decade: Harry Potter, in which he plays Sirius Black, and as Commissioner Jim Gordon in Christopher Nolan's peerless The Dark Knight series. But this is not the dangerous, unpredictable Oldman, the south Londoner whose work in the 1980s marked him out as one of our truly great actors (Sid and Nancy, Prick Up Your Ears) and who, in the 1990s, became Hollywood's go-to psycho (Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone's JFK and the title character in Bram Stoker's Dracula). Off the set, his legend was made even richer with multiple marriages (second time round to Uma Thurman) and a raucous relationship with alcohol before he went into treatment 15 years ago. Still, technicalities aside, Oldman is back. As George Smiley in the adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by Swedish director Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In), the 53-year-old achieves a few remarkable feats. One, he eclipses Alec Guinness's portrayal of Smiley in the vaunted 1979 BBC series.

Two, he eclipses a superb British cast (Colin Firth, John Hurt, Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy among them). Finally, he delivers a subtle and restrained performance quite unlike anything in his three decades of work. The tag of "best actor never to win an Oscar" may be about to be passed on. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is an espionage thriller, but it has very little in common with the Bourne and Bond films. Was that part of the appeal for you? Le Carré has said that when these books first came out they were like the polar opposite of Ian Fleming. I guess he was a spy, so he tries to give you the real world of spying, as opposed to the gadgets and the gizmos of James Bond. Ironically, here it is the wife who is promiscuous; it's normally Bond who jumps into bed with every girl. But it's the rather quiet and complex, in a way dull, day-to-day policing of something, rather than buildings blowing up. All of the agents are so dark and troubled. It's a terrible advertisement for a career in the secret service, isn't it? Yes, these people are professionally anonymous, even anonymous to their families.

It's strange that everywhere James Bond goes he announces who he is. He meets the villain and says: "Bond, James Bond." He's a secret agent! There's a lovely description of Smiley in the book as "one of London's meek who did not inherit the earth" – did you do anything to physically prepare for the role? I wanted a little bit of that paunch of someone who had slowed down in life, likes his steak and kidney pie and a nice bottle of wine. So in the prep it was chips and hamburgers, ice-cream puddings – I used to call it "eating for George". The problem's taking it off. When you make a physical transformation – as you did dramatically to play Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy – how does that help you as an actor? Well, if you're carrying around a few extra pounds, we all feel it. But it also gives you a visual, it's something you can believe in when you look in the mirror, when you put those clothes on. It's the silhouette, which is as important as the emotional or the internal.

That's true with every character, whether you're playing Shelly Runyon [The Contender] or Drexl [True Romance] or Dracula. They all have their own shape. Your Smiley is dark and sombre, tougher than Alec Guinness played him. Why did you take that direction? With Smiley, one is conscious that there's this melancholy, he's a disillusioned romantic, his wife has left him. So that is the running condition of it, that's the motor underneath it all. And it was exciting to be able to do something that was contained and very studied, rather than normally – in the past anyway – being asked to play those rather frenetic characters. There's a string of things I've done that are somewhat typecast and it's been fantasy for the past 10 years, it's been Sirius Black and Commissioner Gordon, so I am very grateful to Tomas for seeing beyond that. Do you know why he wanted you for the role? They threw a few names around and then came up with mine and I think Tomas became a bit obsessed with the idea. Directors do that sometimes, they get an actor in their head and can't see it any other way, which was lucky for me.

When we met I said: "What is it? What do you see?" And he said: "Your face, it looks like you've lived a bit. You've been through some stuff." I said: "Yeess! Oh yes." You have called this a return to proper work. How does a role like this exercise you in a way franchises do not? You have the whole canvas. Sometimes when you come into a film and you've got a couple of scenes, it's like rock'n'roll, you feel like you've got to come in and burn with the first bar. Smiley's a bit more like jazz. I can just be there and build to that solo. But I should say that they are minor grumbles, I don't think that anything else comes near the reinvention of Batman that Chris Nolan has put together. If that's my only problem, it could be a lot worse. You are known for being very professional on set. Have you always been so diligent? Anything I've been passionate about, yeah.

When I was younger, I played piano and decided when I was around 13 I wanted to study at the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music – I don't know whether the rioters burned it down, it might still be there. I studied the pieces and would practise three hours a day of scales, so I can become quite obsessive. But I know there are other people who work very differently. I hear that Gérard Depardieu just reads the lines and they are pasted up everywhere around the set. I couldn't get my head round that, it would terrify me. Did you ever lose your love for acting? Oh yeah, it comes and goes. I think 31 years of doing something, it's not always exciting. There are times when you just have to pay the rent, keep the kids in school. It doesn't mean that you give less, but sometimes you do things and they turn out not so well. You have two boys (Gulliver, 14, and Charlie, 12) from your third marriage, to Donya Fiorentino. Would it be fair to say that your career has taken second place to bringing them up in recent years? Yes.

Well, first of all, I just ended up being a single dad. Then made a decision that I would either be that dad who was always away or I'd be the dad that was around. And they are my greatest accomplishment, I'm more proud of that than I am of anything. Your own father left home when you were seven; was that a factor? Maybe it had something to do with my own dad not being around, who knows? There are things I'd have liked to have done with my dad that we never did and I think he would have enjoyed what I've done. I think that he would be proud. But I don't really remember him that vividly. I liken it to a video cassette, a VHS that has been taped over: there's an image, a bit of blank space and there's a memory and there's a big blank space. And I didn't want these guys to have that. You've been known for being rather wild. Do you have a quieter life now? It's not completely square. My obsession at the moment is the ukulele – I'm trying to play blues on it. I suppose you could say I've smoothed out some of the sharper edges.

But there's some life in the old boy yet. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is out on 16 September

Question: Who plays 'George Smiley' in the 2011 film adaptation of 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'?
Answer: GARY OLDMAN